Several major changes have been incorporated into this iteration. The fiber source has been shifted from isomaltooligosaccharide to soluble corn fiber, after determining that soluble corn fiber provided greater consistency. Thanks to the thickening nature of fiber, we were able to decrease the usage of gums, from 1g to 0.5g.

In version 1.7 we removed the majority of ingredients derived from algae and with version 1.8, all algal ingredients have been removed. Previous versions of Powder contained high oleic canola & high stability algal oil creamer. These ingredients have been substituted with high oleic canola creamer.

These changes have increased overall serving weight, from 84.8g/serving to 87g/serving.

Hm, not much of an explanation for why they took the remaining algal ingredients out. Is Original drink the only Soylent product on the market that still contains algal ingredients? That’s a bit disheartening. I hope the shift away from algae is not permanent.

Hm, not much of an explanation for why they took the remaining algal ingredients out. Is Original drink the only Soylent product on the market that still contains algal ingredients? That’s a bit disheartening. I hope the shift away from algae is not permanent.

Didn’t they determine the algal ingredients were what was responsible for some people’s gastrointestinal distress? (I could be misremembering…)

Didn’t they determine the algal ingredients were what was responsible for some people’s gastrointestinal distress? (I could be misremembering…)

That was just the algal flour, to my understanding, and not the algal oil. (Though I suppose it’s possible there could be some people who experience GI problems with the oil, too, on a less dramatic and publicized scale?) Based on @GenesisFoodSolutions’s comment and some other discussion on the forum, it sounds like the PR fallout from the algal flour may have soured the business relationship between Terravia and RF. If that’s the issue then I do hope they find another supplier.

Yeah, basically what I interpreted from various posts across here and the subreddit was that, after RF decided to remove the algal flour from the powder and bars after people were sick, Terravia took that as RF saying that they were to blame, and decided they wanted to stop the partnership after the contract they had expired.

I don’t actually recall any RF official explicitly saying it was the fault of the algal flour (though many community members did), but Terravia took it that way.